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Jews in Minnesota Oral History Project: Interview with Florence Karp Kunian Schoff

Titles: Jews in Minnesota Oral History Project: Interview with Florence Karp Kunian Schoff (Supplied title)

Description: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: In 1904 Florence Karp's parents came to the United States from Russia, where her father was a university student, and Karp was born in New York City on May 28, 1906. After two years in New York, the family moved to South Dakota to raise sheep. Five years later they moved to Edmonton, Alberta, to take up another land grant, but they lived in the town. In 1922 they moved to Minneapolis, where Karp's parents became superintendents of the Jewish Home for the Aged (later the Sholom Home). In 1926 Karp graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in music. That year she also married Paul Kunian, and they had two children, Michael and Diana (Mrs. Bruce Lewis). She was active in Reform Judaism at Temple Israel and was a leader of the Zionist women's group Hadassah and of the Minneapolis Federation for Jewish Services. She also was an early supporter of Hubert Humphrey and a Democratic Farmer Labor Party activist and fund raiser. Paul Kunian died in 1964, and in 1973 she married Francis Schoff, a non-Jewish widower. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Early life on the South Dakota sheep ranch; working her way through the University of Minnesota; her courtship and marriage; her parents' background, motivation for emigration, and religious and political beliefs; her own religious and political beliefs and activities; the Depression; anti-Semitism; and Israel.

Dates

  • 04/29/1976 (Creation)

Creation

Identifiers

  • Library Call Number: OH 131.22
  • Accession Number: AV1979.142.14

Holding Type: Oral History - Interview

Project

Quantity: 1 hour sound cassette 12 pages transcript

Format

  • Content Category: sound recordings
  • Content Category: text

Measurements

  • 00:43:42 running time

Subjects

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Documents

Audio:

Audio Part 1

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Audio Part 2

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